Nashville ruger 10/22 trigger expert?

[thundersnow]

Who would you recommend for some trigger work on a ruger 10/22 in the Nashville area? I was hoping to get some feedback from some of you rimfire shooters out there that have made some upgrades to your rig.

[Oh Shoot]

Unless you can find a really cheap gunsmith (does one exist?) and depending on how much you want to nice it up, just drop in Volquarten stuff. Target hammer is $35 or less (makes it nicer by half), extended kit for about $95 (nicer by maybe 3/4), whole new replacement trigger assembly under $200 ('bout best it can be) -- easy peasy. Couple of other parties make these too, some swear Timney stuff is even better, dunno.

That's probably what the gunsmith will do. Although you might find one who will hand stone and whatnot for less, tricky though. Maybe Dolomite_supafly will chime in here, he's done some nice ones, can't remember if he did them without additional parts or not.

Oh, stick in a Volquartsen extractor too, 10 clams or less. Cures and/or prevents a multitude of ills, especially as gun gets shot more and more.

- OS

Edited November 5, 2011 by OhShoot

[Guest Broomhead]

What are you wanting done?

I have done both of my triggers as well as my Dad's two using the How-To's on RimFireCentral.com. There are a few things they don't tell you, mostly the things that folks make the money off of, but even that is fairly easy to figure out. Just go slow and test it out between every single change. That said, I'm not an expert, don't listen to me thinking I am one, I am not liable for what you do or don't do. ;^{D}

PM me if you have questions.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I know what it takes to take a factory trigger and turn it into something that will compete with most high end setups. And do it without swapping in a new hammer, sear, disconnect or trigger.

Stoning the hammer can help some but to get a truly nice trigger is takes a combination of all parts working in unison. Even though I use factory parts I replace every spring in the trigger group. I shim every single pin for side movement. I modify, change the angles and polish nearly eary part that comes in contact with another part. And this literally takes me hours if everything goes as planned.

I have literally ruined a few dozen hammers, sears and disconnects trying to find out what works and what doesn't. With the 10/22 one hit with the file too many and you can ruin a part.

With that being said if you can find a smith who will do a trigger using factory parts that is as cheap as the cost of replacement parts I would be amazed. Because of the abundance of aftermarket parts most smiths just replace the parts like you would but charge you labor. As OhShoot said you can make for a really nice trigger for under $100 as long as you don't mind doing the work yourself. The 10/22 trigger isn't complicated but it can seem so when all the parts fall out.

And with any modification you need to test fire the gun. I have a range at home so I would literally hit a part a few times with a file the reassemble the trigger and go shoot.

Dolomite

ETA:

And if I had to do a trigger today I would just buy a kit and put them in myself. I honestly don't see the savings if you do your own trigger using factory parts. Even at minimum wage I would have never broke even.

Edited November 5, 2011 by Dolomite_supafly

[graycrait]

Dolomite_supafly has it right and I envy him his home range to test out experiments. However, if you want to improve the trigger without hardly doing anything just buy a Volquartsen hammer and install that. That will nearly get you to where you need to go. Just that one thing. Of course you could stone your own hammer but then you have the issue of stoning through the hardened metal, going too far, etc. Just the VQ hammer will do you a lot of good.

I've tinkered around with a dozen or so 10/22s, using 4 or 5 Green Mountain barrels, a couple of Rimfire Technology barrels, after market trigger groups, and other parts. Right now I have a Colossic bolt lock on order to turn one of my 10/22s into a suppressed bolt action/semi-auto. If the bolt lock works I may spring for a 1:9 twist barrel for Aguila 60grain SSS ammo. If you want to turn a 10/22 into a match grade .22 rifle you can come close if you experiment a lot, but on one project I spent as much on a 10/22 as one would on a Winchester 52 or a Remington 40X and the gun could not shoot with those, but it was fun and educational.

The smartest value to get one shooting really nice without breaking the bank is getting hold of Nemohunter on rimfirecentral or contacting Randy at CPC and sending your bolt and barrel to him to be tuned up, then install a VQ hammer and then go from there if you think you need to go further. Connecticut Precision Chambering I have a refaced bolt and tuned up stock peg barrel on one of mine and I like it better than any other I have had and it looks like a stock carbine 10/22. Trigger is about 2.5lbs, and just having a decent trigger is a good thing.

I have a friend who makes gun parts and is going to make a S&W 41 barrel/upper with a 1:12 twist. Talking to him got me off on a tangent again looking at twist rates, barrel lengths, bore specs etc. Talking to this fella he told me that he just measured one of his stock 10/22s and it is right on Saami spec wise. Which seems to suggest that if you take a 10/22 in these steps you can rather inexpensively and incrementally improve the accuracy up to a point: trigger; rechamber/crown the barrel; bolt work; V-block;bedding. Much beyond that I think you might be better off getting a true target rifle. The other issue with a tighter chamber is reliability and crud build-up. I had a 10/22 barrel made one time that had such a tight chamber for one specific type of ammo that it became unreliable rather quickly due to the inherent "dirtiness" of .22 ammo. There are a lot of trade offs in the .22 rifle game.

I like 10/22s but I think you can have a lot of fun with the new S&W AR-like .22, at least that is what I hear from two hardcore gun friends of mine. I personally can't get over how much fun a Remington 552 semi-auto is with its ability to shoot nearly anything you put in the tube at the same time, leaving out Colibras.

Have fun and keep asking questions. I suspect there are more than just a few guys on this forum who have poured money down the rathole of 10/22 aftermarket and learned some lessons.

[graycrait]

P.S. I just looked and this rifle would likely save a lot of grief by just getting this one: FS Full Custom Ruger 10/22 Built - RimfireCentral.com Forums